


I Have Spat Out the Bile of Defeat

by Eliyes



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:11:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eliyes/pseuds/Eliyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kolya on John Sheppard, just before their final confrontation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Have Spat Out the Bile of Defeat

**Author's Note:**

> Up to and including SGA 3x13 "Irresponsible".
> 
> The title is taken from the song Madame Guillotine from the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel. Further thematic inspiration for this story was found in the song Falcon In the Dive, from the same musical. It just seemed to suit.
> 
> This story was originally posted to Livejournal November 22, 2007.

_John Sheppard._

It was a name to conjure nightmares with. John Sheppard had woken the Wraith early, for which a galaxy should curse his name. John Sheppard controlled the City of the Ancestors. John Sheppard had flying vehicles that could reflect weapons' fire, turn invisible, and hang soundlessly in the air. John Sheppard was capable of anything, under that smiling buffoon's demeanor.

He had single-handedly destroyed an elite Genii task force. He had survived encounters with the Wraith again and again, on planets, on _hive ships_ – he had _destroyed_ hive ships! He had hidden his entire _city_ from the Wraith! Yes, John Sheppard had saved the City of the Ancestors, and the Athosians. He was hailed as a hero on a dozen planets, when he should have been _reviled._

Oh, yes, he was impressive. A survivor, a leader, a killer. Kolya could respect his skills, even as he hated him. Sheppard was responsible for the upheaval among the Genii, Kolya's own exile in disgrace, and the death of hundreds – if not _thousands_ – of the Genii and their allies. Now that traitor Radim played at being allies with Atlantis. It made sense, in it's way. They were powerful and dangerous; better to have them with the Genii than against them.

Except Kolya could not accept that, knowing what he knew of John Sheppard. He had thought that Sheppard's one constant was an unwavering enmity for the Wraith. Kolya knew that capturing and making use of a Wraith as he had would have been stepping over a line in the eyes of many. Certainly Radim would embrace it as an excuse to never allow his return.

He had been wrong. He had once again underestimated John Sheppard. He had not anticipated him _allying_ himself with the Wraith, somehow convincing it not only not to kill him, but to _help_ him. Sheppard had been on the very brink of death and _still_ he had escaped!

Kolya could not forget the moment Sheppard's voice had come to him, promising to kill him when next they met. He had heard the threat, the roar of his name, angry – and strong. Much stronger than Sheppard had any right to be at that point. In that moment, he had felt fear.

Every warrior knows that he will eventually meet the foe he cannot match. (Kolya did not count the Wraith; they were a monstrous, ravening scourge of all people, even those crazy enough to worship their terrible power.) Now he felt his own mortality, a confusing weakness in the face of John Sheppard's inexplicable success.

Scouting parties had gone back and found the men who had pursued the Wraith-aged Sheppard. They were dead, clearly fed on by the creature. Of the escaped prisoners, there was no sign. His informant network had brought him word when Sheppard turned up again – looking healthy and whole, every bit as young as he'd been before Kolya had captured him.

It wasn't possible.

He heard whispers among the men, that this “ATA gene” which allowed some of those from Atlantis to awaken the artifact technology of the Ancestors meant that they were the direct blood of the Ancestors, or perhaps even Ancestors themselves.

He himself was ready to believe that Sheppard was not human, not a man as the Genii were men. He was some uncanny creature from beyond the known worlds. He might even be some creation of the Wraith –

He was was an accursed phantom, and he would haunt Kolya until he personally killed and burnt to ash John Sheppard, with no interference from Doctors McKay or Beckett and their unnatural scientific artifices.

He would not be able to move forward with any plans for a coup until Sheppard was taken completely out of the picture. This he knew. He _knew_. And so he spread the word that he would reward anyone who brought him word of Sheppard's activities, and more if they could provide him with Sheppard's whereabouts before he left.

So it was that he was now directing his men on a methodical takeover of a laughably bucolic village, on the say-so of a pathetic mercenary who was once a proud soldier of the Genii. Kolya had shed the civilian guise he'd worn since his banishment, and he stepped into the town square as his proper self, in his uniform.

As soon as he did, he knew Sheppard was there. He'd never held much faith in predestination – he had believed that the Genii would triumph through skill and power and _planning_ – but now he felt the presence of fate in every moment. The confrontation was coming, and this time there would be no quarter and no escape whatsoever.

One way or another, only one of them would survive.

 

 

* * *

  


_How the devil can I ever prevail when I'm only a man?  
I can never be duped by that scurrilous phantom again!_

  


* * *

  



End file.
